Holiday parties can be a real mixed-bag

It is that time of year when companies, or local offices at least, gather to mark the end-of-year holidays. The focus is generally on the logistics and cuisine -- the "how" of it. Far less attention is given to the "why" of it. There is good reason to begin there before picking the food and wine pairings.

First, there are pitfalls for the host, whether the events be low-budget affairs (I went to one once where upon arriving each guest got two drink tickets -- guess how many people stayed for a full-fare third?) that test the bonds of the team or spreads so lavish they make the employees on hand wonder why some of it couldn't be spread over them during the year.

Second, there are pitfalls for the employees, beginning with whether to bring a date (and doubling the chance that the wrong thing will be said or a confidence revealed) and running to making a bit too merry and doing or saying something in the spirit of the season that keeps on giving throughout the year.

To avoid these (as well as for other reasons), some companies pass on the opportunity to gather to mark the season; offering a charitable contribution or time off instead. Other companies gather, but for team-building activities and during the day. Yet many persist in holding a "holiday" party (catholic, not Catholic nomenclature), viewing it more as a "thank you" for the past year and to mark the coming one than it is notice of the season, either secular or religious. From a company's point of view, it is an attempt to boost the coming year's productivity by making work personal.

The flaw in that thinking, though, is that work isn't personal. If it is managed as if it were, even terrific bottom line results would always be colored by disappointment. In fact, the best argument against a holiday gathering -- any gathering, really -- is that while individuals may want to know they are a part of a larger whole, their daily focus is on how their contribution affects their personal standing. Get-togethers add more than a little tension to the equation by forcing people out of the solitary and into the social.

That is not to say that small groups, meaningful groups don't form inside companies. They always do. Sometimes built around an interest or gender or business focus or life stage, these groups are helpful in promoting careers and instilling productive behavior. Full-scale get-togethers, built not from the ground up, but from the top down; or ad-hoc around an event or holiday can throw together people who would not otherwise seek each other out. Adding unfamiliarity to the expected bonhomie a holiday party creates a a cocktail that can be explosive.

So, as you dress for the holiday party, remember that it will be a few hours that can have a disproportionate effect on your workday reputation. On one hand, you may find common ground you did not know existed. Great things can be built on such plots. On the other hand, you may find your views validated thereby, at least, raising your confidence level. But on the imaginary third hand, you may have a good time outside the concerns of hierarchy or history.

That is why as the parties are planned for this year's end, I am reminded of something Jack Nicolson as "Frank Costello" said in "The Departed," the Scorsese movie: "Act accordingly."